Accenture Helps NHS Radiologists Exchange Medical Images in the Cloud

New system enables clinicians to access images in real-time across hospitals/medical facilities in Southwest England

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Accenture (NYS: ACN) has completed the deployment of a cloud-based Radiology Information System (RIS) for five hospitals and 23 facilities within the National Health Service (NHS) in Southwest England. Using Accenture Clinical Services, the new platform enables clinicians to store, access and exchange patient and diagnostic information from virtually anywhere, over a highly secure infrastructure.

The deployment project -- from signing contracts to going live -- took just 10 weeks and included migration of data from the old systems to the new Accenture solution.

"The growing demand for imaging means that radiologists are confronted with increasing workloads and the challenge of processing larger amounts of data," said Matt Oakley who leads Accenture's Medical Imaging Practice in the United Kingdom and Ireland. "As the NHS national IT contracts draw to a close, this cloud-based solution will enable clinicians across the region to share patient data, which can be crucial in urgent cases, such as stroke or major trauma. It also will enable trusts to concentrate on providing the best care to patients, rather than having to worry about maintaining an IT system."

Accenture worked with Healthcare Software Systems (HSS) to deploy their RIS solution to enable radiologists and clinicians to securely share and manage patient diagnostic data, radiology reports, appointments and administrative functions with confidence. The new RIS solution replaces an existing system and is part of a five-year strategy.

"Our group of hospitals are undertaking a major replacement of PACS (picture archiving and communications system) and RIS systems under an aggressive timetable in the lead up to the end of the national contracts," said Andy Blofield, director of Plymouth ICT Shared. "For RIS, the most important considerations in choosing a new vendor were confidence in the service and patient safety and the continued ability to share data across organizations. With the rapid deployment and support services it provided, Accenture has demonstrated that we made the right choice."

The increasing demand for cloud computing in medical imaging is expected to grow 26 percent annually through 2018, according to an Accenture study. Roughly 73 percent of healthcare organizations are expected to shift medical imaging data into the cloud, in some capacity, while 32 percent currently use some form of cloud computing for imaging, according to the study. The shift from analog to digital images has resulted in exponential growth in the amount of data that must be stored.

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with approximately 261,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world's most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$27.9 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2012. Its home page is www.accenture.com.